Style Guide
For consistency across RP sessions and within chat logs and prose, the following Style Guide rules should be followed. Dialogue The following guidelines are specifically for consistency in dialogue within an RP session and in accompanying prose snippets. 'Standard Dialogue' Standard dialogue is normal spoken conversation between two characters. Dragons can communicate in normal spoken languages even in dragon form, and there is no change in how this is represented. *Within an RP session, dialogue is written normally, no formatting or tags. *:- (Tey) What do you mean? *Within prose, dialogue is written with no specific formatting, using double quotes. *:- "I mean you're being silly," Avra replied. 'Draconic Language' Used by dragons to communicate at a distance, using the draconic voice to resonate and carry. Not generally understandable by humans, as it consists of roars, growls, etc. This requires a draconic form to use. *Use italics and double quotes to indicate draconic language, both in RP and prose. *:- "I don't know what you're talking about." 'Telepathy' Some dragons and half-dragons are capable of telepathy, speaking mind-to-mind. *Use italics without quotes to indicate telepathy, both in RP and prose. *:- I'm talking about your obsession with fried pastries. 'Empahsis' Sometimes emphasis is needed for certain words. *Use italics for emphasis of single words or phrases. *:- (Tey) It's not an obsession. *:- "Sure it isn't," Avra snorted. *For emphasis within already-italicized text, use double italics (which appears un-italicized). *:- "I ''swear it isn't!"'' 'Replacement Words' Sometimes during RP, a character will swear or use a foreign word, and the PTB don't want to either type out vulgarities or have to come up with said foreign words. *Replace the word in question with square brackets and a similar word or phrase, or something equally indicative of what is being replaced. *:- (Avra) Like bleep it isn't. Don't think I didn't watch your sorry butt filching money from the pot to pay for your obsession. *:- (Tey) ...So I like pastry delicacies. What's wrong with that? 'Numbers' As a note, numbers should always be written out rather than represented as numerals, for ease of conversion to script format (the find-and-replace dialog is used to replace numerals from timestamps, and will usually take out numerals in RP otherwise). Tags Tags are used to mark text for specific uses, such as out-of-character chatter or action or even who's talking. Use the following tag guidelines for consistency throughout an entire RP, as well as ease of reading and converting to script format later. 'Dialogue Tags' Used to note who's talking. Less necessary in prose, so follow standard prose-writing rules for dialogue tags. *For RP dialogue, begin each line of dialogue with a parenthetical tag of who is speaking. Don't skimp lines (unless issuing an immediate addendum to what someone just said), and don't use just an initial. This...causes problems. *:- (Avra) You've used up all our spare change this month buying pastries. 'Action Tags' Used to indicate actions rather than dialogue. Setting descriptions can also be included inside action tags. In prose, action is just written outside the dialogue quotation marks, and standard writing rules should be followed again. *In RP sessions, double colons should be used to tag action (not asterisks, as those are frequently used for emphasis, especially if someone's bold or italics have stopped working in their chat program). Capitalization and punctuation aren't regulated within action tags so long as everything is understandable. *:- ::Tey looks sheepishly to the side, then sighs. He reaches into his pocket.:: 'Summary Tags' Used to summarize sections of RP, especially in order to time-jump or fill in less-RPable segments such as large-scale fights. Setting descriptions may be included within summary tags. *Use square brackets on either side of summaries and setting descriptions. *:- pulls out two tickets to that thing Avra loves, explaining that he spent all the money on pastries because there was some sort of a contest where the person who bought the most pastries would get tickets to this Thing. Avra immediately forgives him and the two of them attend the Thing. 'OOC (Out-of-Character) Tags' Used to mark off OOC chatter, such as IMH ("In My Head") dialogue from characters that would otherwise not make sense in the RP as a whole, or commentary from people involved in the RP, whether discussing stuff about the RP itself or chatter unrelated to the session. *Use double parentheses on either end of the OOC stuff, so it's easier to parse out from the actual RP session for later scripting. *:- ((You don't think that's too silly, do you? A contest where you buy the most pastries to win tickets?)) *:- ((TeyIMH: ::blubbering at Avra's feet for forgiveness:: Boo hoo hoo!)) *:- ((Nah, not too silly, given this is just for the Style Guide examples. Hey, want to hang out at the mall tomorrow and go clothes shopping?)) 'RP Start Tags' Since AIM at least uses very long contiguous log files instead of individual files, it can be tricky finding RP sessions or places where we discussed worldbuilding among all the chaff. RP Start Tags make it easier to locate by using characters not commonly located together within the normal course of a chat log. *Use double equals signs as brackets on either end of "RP Start" or "RP Info" at the start of the relevant section, not unlike HTML comment tags. Once the Start Tag has been inserted, non-RP chatter afterward should be within the OOC Tags. *:- RP Start ((You sum up this time?)) *:- RP Info All right, so about this Thing that Avra likes...what is it? With the move to Discord and the subsequent lack of actual log files but the existence of separate chat channels, RP text no longer gets lost among other chatter and these tags are no longer needed. However, RP text should be copied over at the end of a session. *With Discord, after copying the text to a temporary cleanup file in your word processor of choice, send --COPIED TO HERE-- to the chat to indicate where the last copy-paste left off. *:- ((I think that's a good place to end for tonight.)) --COPIED TO HERE-- Converted Scripts Completed RP sessions should be converted into script format in a word processor like Word or LibreOffice. For further consistency beyond the above guidelines, follow the steps below. *The converted script should use hanging indents so that the first line of each paragraph (each character's segment of dialogue) is further left than the rest of the paragraph. *Additional space should be set at the end of each paragraph for visual ease-of-reading. *If a character has two or more immediately consecutive lines in the RP they should be run together into one paragraph. *All irrelevant OOC chatter should be removed (relevant segments should be included as blockquotes where needed and RP corrections made in OOC Tags should be applied at this point). *Font size should be standardized to Times New Roman, 12-pt, black. *Section breaks are marked by two extra carriage returns (leaving two empty lines between sections), and should be accompanied by summary tags and a time-skip or scene-change description, even if short. If the break is long enough to justify (such as a time-skip of several months, during which other action could conceivably happen), then a page break should be used instead. *A spell-check should be run with a world-specific dictionary turned on to catch spelling mistakes (since most chat programs don't have real-time spellcheck services), and punctuation errors can be corrected as needed. Finally, if a set of characters is revisited later, the new RP can be appended to the end of the previous file if it fits (so that we don't have more than one file for any specific pair of characters or other interactions, such as Bryson and Meagan, or Fayth and Tynan, or Tey and Avra).